The Internet is Changing the World - Coursework Example

The Internet is Changing the World With the advent of the Internet, it is increasingly changing the world. In the early years after the introduction of the Internet around the world, the Internet has only such limitations. It took a little while for the Internet to grow bigger and bigger. Microsoft Corporation is one big company that become an integral part of the internet age. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation, took the initiative and grab on to the opportunity and created an Operating System that would be used for the internet with such great ease and that too evolved (Cole, 2003). The creation of the Internet opened doors to a lot of people and companies. It offers vast opportunities for people from all walks of life. Those people who have disability can now communicate to other people around the world, which with their situation before they can never do in a lifetime. In the current time, these disadvantaged individuals have now ease and comfort in accessing information and communicating efficiently. They can now do business wherever they are. They do not even have to exert effort in relocating or transporting to other places to do their business or everyday activity. The Internet also paved the way for micro, small and medium companies to tap a much bigger market. The market potential of these enterprises expanded as a result of the Internet usage and adaptation of these businesses. For instance, promotion of the company, product or services can be done through the Internet. Marketing which is the most difficult aspect of entrepreneurship can also be conducted through the computers, network, websites, and others. Even live one on one business matching can be done with the latest technology. With the emergence of the Internet, there are some companies, though they are not that technically inclined, that created to address certain requirements for website development that would attract the consumers (Gates, 2000). Internet did not only pave the way for people to communicate with their loved ones. It also generated a new way of doing business. Thus, the birth of the E-Commerce and E-Business. According to Gefen (2000), E-Commerce or E-Business is facilitating entrepreneurial transactions and communication through the utilization of computers and networks (Javenpaa, et al., 2000). . Though the traditional way of doing business still exist, people nowadays would not leave their homes and just browse the internet on things they need at home and order it from the internet. Business is now easy since almost all the information are available on the Internet. Various types of transactions can be done through the computers and Internet. Systems are now easy to install in the computer. Various systems, software and hardware and the Internet can now be installed and availed. All these facilitate high technology of doing business. Speed and efficiency are easily achieved nowadays with the advent of the latest technology and the Internet. Productivity which is a common problem before by most business can now be easily achieved. Skills and technical expertise that are hard to source before can now easily be done through the Internet. Outsourcing and insourcing are gaining popularity since they provide fast solutions to the needs of the individuals or companies. Most help that businessmen need can be found on the Internet. The process of hiring personnel are easy by just posting the availability of jobs on the Internet. Interviews and evaluations of applicants can be done online and through the assistance of some electronic gadgets. .So in retrospect, this technology is slowly changing the way we live our lives. Actually it already had an impact or we have already changed in a manner of speaking and embraced the technology. In fact, the people are so used to these and exposed to such convenience brought about by the latest technology will find difficulty in doing their day-to-day activities without the help of all these. The internet opened our eyes and showed us that there are no boundaries anymore. Anything you need to know can be gathered in just one click. Any supports that you require are readily available. There is just a need to make yourselves aware of the opportunities and possibilities through computers, networks and the web. Once the people get themselves familiar with the technicalities and other aspects of internet usage, they will find that the Internet is the most convenient and important part of our everyday life. People from across the globe can get to know another person on the opposite side of the world. Internet also introduced different ways to communicate. There are the email and chat forums. These have made communication expenses cheaper and convenient. Internet also gave the opportunity for media to voice out and publishes their work. Their work can now be accessed more extensively and more frequently by everyone by just a click of the mouse of the computer. Merchandises that were non-existent at the time or are not getting to the right market can now be ordered or viewed by people who actually need it. Product development are fast nowadays. The information on the latest designs that are in demand can be search through the Internet. Internet shopping has also become a fad in these modern days. A good example, according to Successful Internet Business Models (2003), is the Tesco PLC's behaviour with respect to internet shopping. Tesco PLC is one of the most successful retail company. Tesco PLC’s story is a struggle to be successful in the retail industry. There are many ways to measure success as shown by different graphs charting e-commerce growth which may include profit, unique audience, sales, share price, market capitalization, revenue increases, ability to generate profits, success in creating meaningful alliances, success in expanding into new markets, differentiating itself and others (Successful Internet Business Models , 2003). The introduction of systems improvement through the Internet and Information Technology have boost the success of this company. The Tesco PLC company generates cash and its business models work (Bell, 2003). By March 2001, Tesco.com (Tesco Every Little Helps, 2006) had achieved sales of AF300 million through three hundred stores. There are now almost a million registered customers of this company (Successful Internet Business Models, 2003). The company takes seventy thousand orders a week, giving weekly sales of over AF6 million (Food Retailing , 2001 ). To handle this huge customers, the Tesco PLC installed a number of systems with the help of computers and the Internet. The Tesco PLC has been a successful e-commerce company and it has implemented a strategic business plan with regards to this in the medium to long term (Kmarts 5 Big Blunders, 2003). Another company, Starbucks, believes that the more they can make the technology fade into the background the better. Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard, is acting as the preferred technology provider for Starbucks. In this case of the Hewlett-Packard, their engineers found that if not running XP will take to about different fourteen steps including a reboot. The XP has proven very effective to them. Starbucks on the other hand, said it would begin identifying its stores with "T-Mobile HotSpot" decals, which is now part of Hewlett-Packard, and MobileStar, which went under and had its assets acquired by VoiceStream Wireless. It provides equal access to information and communications (Good, 2003). More and more customers are coming in to Starbucks partly as a result of the additional technological perks available to customers. The wi-fi connection in every store of the Starbucks has been a come-on since its introduction a few years ago. This helps the company to be more profitable company. Internet makes the work easier and faster. It helps the market to reach higher as they aim because of the quality and passion that people used to do before. But, because of expansion of the technology like the internet, the benefits that they get to this give them a high quality and good profit. All through the twentieth century - marketing programs were matured to manage consumers in this way (Hensdill, 1998). These days we are being subjected to ever more sophisticated marketing techniques like online marketing, internet marketing, online promotions and the like. This will be more productive for higher sales and for more opportunities. It helps the businessmen to be more encouraged to put more business for easy and orderly way by the use of the internet. They can also see and manage their commodities or income direct to the internet (Mathieson, 2005). By the use of internet, it helps the advertisements to be more popular in other people and to get high market than others which help them to be more known not locally but internationally. In the promotion and marketing, the options nowadays are not only the trimedia such as print, radio and television. The Internet has become the most practical option in terms of cost and large customer reach-out. People nowadays are not dependent on newspaper, radio and television anymore. Internet has more information than that of the mentioned tri-media. Though the Internet also poses a threat to a lot of people with too much information, sometimes the information on the website are either fictitious or has bad intent (Ricciuti, 2002). People need to be aware of these types of information. The internet also gave an opportunity for unlawful elements and take advantage of people who are not aware types of transactions. Internet so shaped the world whereas to before all transactions were made in person and unlawful elements transact the same. However, nowadays since the introduction of the Internet majority of the transactions can be made thru the internet. Paperless transaction is the in thing. Now the focus for web administrators of legitimate company websites is to protect their system against malicious mal wares and spy wares. Internet is growing on a rapid pace from just a data exchange tool to a web based emails, chatting, online games, and others. Therefore, the society is also rapidly changing from the contemporary purchases made personally to purchasing almost everything through the web. There are dangers to this that is why legitimate websites are very keen on securing their websites to protect them and their customers from malicious transactions. The internet helped every country by creating job opportunities and businesses at the same time. Internet is growing rapidly that unlike before we can only communicate using voice through telephone. Nowadays, even chat rooms have voice capability. For years, we are slowly but surely changing the way we do business and majority of the companies are converting their promotion and advertisement campaigns to website links and web search engines. In the years to come, there is a distinct possibility that the telephone might get obsolete since it is much cheaper now to call using Voice over IP technology rather than going through the regular phone charges in making long distance telephone calls. And with the growing phenomenon of the Internet, the types of connections have also evolved. We have evolved from the old telephone lines to the fibre optic lines that we have now. Before we can only send out emails and exchange data through the Internet. Now we can even have video conferencing. So internet does have a major effect on both cultural and personal outlook. People from all walks of life and from various countries are becoming homogeneous when it comes to the way they see things. Communication are more frequent. Exchange of culture and ideas are part of everyday life. The best thing here is that we can have all the luxuries now than we had before. During the early years of the Internet, it was only available to a few individuals. But now, due to the introduction of cheap computers and devices combined with easier and faster internet connection, people can now exchange correspondence through the Internet. Large companies that have employees scattered all over the world can send their reports and receive memoranda using this technology. Operation of company with numerous branches around the world is now possible at a lower cost requirement. So if we look back from the good old days wherein we need to go thru a lot to get memoranda or correspondence, information and the likes, we now have easy access to these data and information by using the Internet. We can talk real time to relatives or business people in different parts of the world. Families can now be much closer to one another and can exchange correspondence in real time. Likewise, those people who are disabled have benefited with this technology. Disabled persons were secluded in such a way that they have difficulty in having conversations and correspondence to family members due to their disability. But since the birth of the Internet they are now able to do more than what they were capable of doing. Now they are not very much dependent on others to do their groceries and other needs. They can just order it using the internet. So businesses are flourishing due to this technology. As much as we would deny that the Internet has given us a substantial if not great impact on our daily lives. We behave differently now than what we were accustomed to in the early years. Now if you are looking for a certain tool, product, services and even programs you can just go online and use a search engine to look it up for you. Even things that are hard to find can be found using the Internet. So Internet has a lot of uses and users that are intertwined. It has in the past, at the present time and is in the future continuously changing the way we live this world. Everyone either loves or hates the Internet, but there is no question that the impact of the Internet is real and profound, certainly the most important communication technology of the generation to come. The internet did not only have an impact to business. The internet had a huge impact in all facets of human existence. In the past if you want to earn a degree or be educated you have to enroll in a school and attend classes physically. Nowadays you can get an online degree at your own pace. And due to the hardships in life in terms of financial incapacity to finish their degrees, people tend to drop out from school and start working. It is sad but that is reality. We need to work for us to survive in this ever changing world and for us to succeed we need to have a better education. That is why since the introduction of online courses from reputable institutions, people are now given an opportunity to pursue their long lost dream of getting a degree. With the help of the internet and partner it with online education it would help the people to get out of poverty due to education. All you need is an internet connection and you can attend classes thru the internet. All materials are available once you get enrolled. So people who are busy working and do not have time to finish school or even attend school due to their busy schedule can now have the ability to finish their degrees and get a better paying job. In the long run once this becomes more and more popular a lot of people who have abandoned their dreams of having a degree and work due to poverty, they can now have the opportunity to go back to school and earn a degree while working and still able to provide for their respective families. Students regardless of online or not are encouraged to participate in learning due to this phenomenon. There are a lot of teachings and learning materials available on the internet. Easy access to articles, case studies and such are a few strokes away from being discovered and learned. Unlike before when we have research activities we are having a hard time looking for the proper references to finish the report. But now the internet has provided students and teachers alike easy access to relevant books and information on a lot of topics which are either theories or real live experiments. Internet is also changing or revolutionizing the publishing industry. Newspapers on the Web have changed the face of publishing. What kinds of news do you find most useful on the Web? Is there some sort of information that you would rather get from a traditional newspaper? Everything that is on the traditional newspaper can also be found on the internet if you go to the newspapers website. People all over the world can access these stories and know the current events on that country. From international news up to the local news events can be found on the newspapers website. So traditional things are now adapting the internet as their means of doing business. The Banking industry also adapted the internet bandwagon. Banks have gone from traditional banking to the online banking as we know now. From online transactions to general FAQ’s are all on the respective banks websites. Forms, processes and even application information are all on the website. Some banks are so well developed that online applications can e submitted and transact. Some people believe that paying bills on the Internet makes life much easier, while others are uncomfortable when they use bits instead of paper for these transactions. What benefits or drawbacks do you see from these services? This would be explained later on this report. Shopping on the Web has grown rapidly as well and you can now buy almost anything online. You would find out which of these sites make shopping easier? Are you more comfortable buying some products on the Web? If so, which ones? Why? Those are just a few questions that we need to ask ourselves. But for the few who doesn’t have the luxury of driving to the market find these services very convenient. Internet has its advantages and disadvantages. We have so far looked at the advantages of the internet and its impact to humane society. But it also had a major impact to the other side of the fence. There are draw backs to this as stated above. Unlawful elements are also using the internet as a method of soliciting, publishing and gathering personal information for fraud. There are a lot of fraudulent transactions already recorded and there has been a lot of arrest made due to the fact. People who don’t have the proper protection or knowledge about protecting their information are prone for such attacks. People need to be aware that being totally dependent on the internet to transact business are subject to a lot of risk. That’s why large companies are investing a lot on skilled personnel, technology, equipments and software’s to address this threat. But sometimes even the most expensive equipments can still be penetrated thus the name “hacker” came into place. Hackers are talented individuals that can go thru firewalls and security without being detected. They create programs or worms to get into your system and sends back information that they have gathered for use on fraudulent transactions. So companies that cater to protect the consumers from those people are also earning big due to this. The internet phenomenon is still at its infancy, in the years to come we would see much more than we ever dreamed of happening. As you can see from the history it started from just sharing information to exchanging emails. Now we can even perform video conferencing in real time and watch television shows online. We also found ways to communicate using the internet as the medium and it’s much cheaper than making an ordinary phone call. There are a lot more things that internet can offer us, it breaks all boundaries and cultures by giving us opportunity to reach distant miles and exchanging correspondence. Who knows maybe in the future we would eventually develop ways to benefit man much more than it already has. But man has to realize that we can benefit from this technology and / or break us. Too much information also imposes a lot of dangers. Bottom line is that internet is here to stay and it’s up to us to properly use the technology to benefit mankind and not use it as a technology to destroy our personality / outlook and break down human ideology. To further elaborate on Internet’s impact on the whole world here’s a list 1.) Economic – Internet gave a huge impact on this topic since the introduction of the internet a lot of companies, big or small have emerged and is prospering. Internet created a lot of jobs and job opportunities for everyone. 2.) Business Prospective – due to the introduction of the internet businesses flourished and created a lot of job opportunities and products. Businesses took the internet bandwagon for their own interest and took advantage of its limitless possibilities. Products and Manufacturers can now introduce to their products on the internet and have them available all over the world. They have less expense with regards to advertisement Electronic Products have more support regardless of distance or location. International transactions of Banks Telco companies that offers high speed internet access Online Services Media advertising and news Television shows 3.) Government – All information required by their respective communities or citizens can be accessed on the internet. This includes application forms, processes and legal advices. This is true to all countries. It also generated a lot of jobs which includes from technical managers down to data encoders. The Telco companies also expanded and got more manpower to address the installation and support for internet connections. Technical companies also expanded their operations by hiring more manpower and added more services to get the bulk of the business. a. More revenues due to the emergence of small and medium companies that are currently earning. b. Company registration alone the government already earned from it. c. International transactions where taxes are incurred d. Centralization of all business processes and applications e. Centralization on all revenues from small towns to the central government. f. Easier access to relevant information on all government services. 4.) Politicians are also using the internet as their means of showing their respective constituents what they are doing to help them and also give their platform for their respective government agenda. a. The Defense Department also uses the internet to launch their information campaigns against terrorist attacks and how they can prevent such attacks. 5.) Personal – Internet also had a huge impact on personal lives. It bridged the distance from one relative or loved one to the other. It also gave the opportunity for people to remove the boundaries and communicate to other people all over the world regardless of race and religion. It opened up the world for everyone to see and learn from. A large number of people are already using the internet or some would say “telecommuting” for it really serves the purpose of doing business and at the same time have meaningful relationship with loved ones. We are living in a fast paced world and having this advantage or technology helps us meet the requirements and do our job well as employees, managers and our personal lives. As much as we would deny it but the Internet Age is fast and coming. Everyone all over the world has been affected and some are really dependent on the Internet to do their business. Start-up companies that do not have enough capital have emerged and currently are earning profits out of this. Consumers browse the internet first for items that they would like to purchase and look where they are available before really go out and look for them. With the creation of cheaper micro processors or computers, people are going out and buying these products so that they can connect to the Internet. In the years to come we would find that in every corner of the world Internet would be the main source of information. References Bell, David, E. Tesco Plc. Harvard Business School, March 6, 2003. Cole, Jeffrey. 2003. How the Internet is Changing the World. UCLA Center for Communication Policy. Food Retailing. 2001: 10. Gates, Bill. Shaping the Internet Age. Internet Policy Institute, December 2000 Gefen, D. (2000), "E-commerce: The role of familiarity and trust," Omega, 28, 725–737. Good, Anthony. FCC ET Docket 03-104 / Broadband over Power Line NOI. Letter, May 14, 2003. http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6514086116 . Hensdill, C., (1998). The new Breed of CRSs'. Hotel, Vol.32 No.7, pp.105-108. IBM Globalization - Terminology. 2006. http://www- 306.ibm.com/software/globalization/terminology/ef.jsp. Jarvenpaa, S. L., Tractinsky, N. and Vitale, M. (2000), "Consumer Trust in an Internet Store," Information Management and Technology, 1, 45–71. Kmarts 5 big blunders. July 25, 2003. http://www.bcentral.com/articles/krotz/123.asp . Mathieson, R. (2005). Branding unbound : the future of advertising, sales, and the brand experience in the wireless age. New York, AMACOM. Ricciuti, Mike. Open source: Rebels at the gate. CNET News.com, October 14, 2002. Successful Internet Business Models. July 25, 2003. http://www.stylusinc.net/articles/internet_business_models.shtml Tesco Every Little Helps. 2006. http://tesco.com/. Tresser, Tom. 2001. Use the Internet to Change the World. StreetWise, March 26, 2001. Read More